Stainer’s Woes — is the net finally closing?

“There is an ongoing criminal investigation involving Mr and Mrs Stainer  and Robert Richardson manager of The Grand and the VAT ‘problems’ that resulted in their arrest in July 2015”, according to the HMRC’s solicitor, appearing on April 10th before Judge Barber in Court 10 of the Bankruptcy & Companies Court, at the Rolls Building Fetter Lane, London; which is part of the Royal Courts of Justice. She confirmed that there was the criminal element in a three-track process also involving the civil liabilities of the various companies of which the Stainers were directors and the Stainers personally.

        

                                                    Michael Stainer      Doris Stainer      Robert Richardson

In Mr Stainer’s absence, Judge Barber was hearing a further application from HMRC in the matter of the winding up of Keppels Limited, Grand-UK Limited, Kentish Cuisine Limited and Keppels Cuisine Limited, all of whom, along with the now-defunct Grand Folkestone Ltd. were named in the various tax cases we have covered elsewhere. As it happens, the matter was adjourned for six weeks on medical grounds arising from the January 26th alleged assault on Mr Stainer. Another part of his request for an adjournment was that since the arrest of Mr and Mrs Stainer, along with their employee, Robert Richardson, when computers and documents were seized, he had been unable to access his records. However, this was refuted by the HMRC Solicitor who confirmed that copies were available and had been on two occasions made available to Mr Stainer at their Croydon offices, but that he had not attended

But Court 10 was not the only location where the playing out of what could be the last rites of Michael Stainer’s “Grand” commercial “empire”, was taking place.

On April 11th, Deputy Insolvency and Companies Judge Mullen sat in Court 17 to hear the application for the winding-up of The Grand Folkestone Partnership Limited. The significance of this is in the fact that this company was the sole shareholder in the Grand Folkestone Ltd. This was wound up by HMRC last year with HMRC debts in excess of £800,000. The Grand Folkestone Partnership showed a deficit on its balance sheet as of March 31st, 2017 of £65,330 – compared with a surplus of £1 the previous tax year. The next hearing in this application will be on May 9th. 2018.

The next act in what wasn’t a good week for the Stainers saw the rejection of their appeal against a decision of the First tier Tax Tribunal in April 2016 [2016] UKFTT 0138 (TC). The original decision related to tax penalties relating to the payment of PAYE and NIC contributions for the years 2005 to 2011 and the way they were apportioned between the various companies and the Stainers themselves. In brief, the issue was who actually employed the approximately 100 employees who worked at the Grand, some of whom were mainly paid in cash with a small number by cheque. The contracts of employment purported to be with “the Grand” but “no such entity existed and so could not be their employer”.

In rejecting the appeal, the Upper Tribunal Judges found that “Mr and Mrs Stainer’s partnership was the employer” for at least part of the period in question.

Finally, the latest updates on the two cases where the Stainers’ positions as owners of 19 holiday flats in the Grand and as director and secretary of the Grand’s freeholder, Hallam Estate Ltd are at issue. It would appear that in the January case, notable for Mr Stainer’s non-participation, which saw the First Tier Tribunal find the Stainer’s jointly liable for £167,000 of service charge arrears on their holiday-flat business, the time for an appeal has passed and the clock has started ticking on enforcing this debt. In the second case, to be heard on today and tomorrow at Folkestone Magistrates (April 26th and 27th), in which the Association of Residents in the Grand are seeking a new management order and the appointment of a new manager with greatly enhanced powers, Hallam Estates has failed to file any objections.

The implications of all these cases, both corporate and personal, and the way they interlock are not for us to comment on, so we will end, with apologies to TS Eliot:

“Is this is the way the Grand ends Is this is the way the Grand ends Is this is the way the Grand ends Not with a bang but a whimper”?

The Shepwayvox Team – Dissent is NOT a crime.